We got to chat to the zombie makers on the set of Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse.
We talked Google search history.
The zombies in it are brilliant.
Theres no right way to do zombies.
The damaged, discoloured look of the zombies inDawn Of The Deadcame courtesy of Tom Savini.
Except for the underwater zombie who fights a shark, who has a more stuntman-with-make-up-coming-loose look about him.
In fairness, pre-shark fight his underwater make-up looks terrific.
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Let he who has also fought a shark underwater cast the first stone.
Fulcis zombies were created by Gianetto De Rossi and his effects team.
The zombies created by De Rossi and his team relied on distorted facial features, hair and clay.
In the last decade or so, though, enthusiasm for zombies has increased massively.
Zack SnydersDawn Of The Deadremake topped the box office in 2004, whileShaun Of The Deadlanded the same year.
Since then, there have been countless zombie movies, books and television series.
Romero himself even returned to the sub-genre with a follow up trilogy to his original collective of zombie classics.
Tony Gardner gave the best interview of the visit.
The group of journalists tittered and whispered about it, but I was a little hardened to it.
You may have noted the infected, veiny look of the zombies inScouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse.
That look comes courtesy of Gardner.
Somebody was bitten by a poisonous snake and you could actually see the colour change.
You could see the venom travelling through the veins.
Lots, it turns out.
All the small veins and capillaries that come off of that are actually discoloured.
Theres a degradation in colour, it starts off really black, and then brown and then red.
The idea is this virus is wrapping itself around you.
The eyes are just an artistic decision that is not accurate.
What would you call that?
Weve done films which were veiny before and its just an artistic free for all.
Is there a way, we wonder, to do what he does without enduring some trauma?
I dont really care for blood in real life.
But I was really fortunate in meeting Dr. Corbet.
It was, almost artistically, fascinating.
So I detach the person from it.
Doing research, for me, is a bit challenging because Im empathetic, to people.
So, er, no then.
Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypselooks a million miles away from a gritty, realistic movie, though.
Any time theres an impalement or a dismemberment we just want to attempt to make it medically accurate.
Its really easy to go fantasyland, and it loses its impact.
Especially in a comedy.
If its more real its more visceral, it has more impact.
I think thats important.
Ultimately thats the editors job though, right?
Trauma isnt the only risk Gardner and his team take.
I reasoned that there might be a problem for Gardner had someone wanted to borrow his laptop.
Its pretty bad, he acknowledged.
We do this character for Geico thats made out of money.
Were making fake money to glue on this guy.
So the governments probably watching our search history at this point.
Id say for the last three months its probably been pretty disturbing.
Gardner was also responsible for the zombies in the horror comedyZombieland.
He tells us what he did differently here.
Zombielands zombies are based on bed sores.
Its based on your skin collapsing and caving-in to your body and these sores getting deeper and deeper.
And, you having a fever and being sweaty and wet.
These are dry, their veins expand, their arteries expand out all over their bodies.
Their skin gets blotchier.
Then, magically, sometimes the capillaries in your eyes just blow out.
Thats the aesthetic thing that takes it over the top and makes it zombie.
Whenever Gardner talks, it sounds like hes asking you a question.
Its a bit like being asked to participate in what hes explaining by understanding it.
It really feels like hes explaining it because he genuinely wants us to know, which is utterly endearing.
And why wouldnt he want us to know the extent of his hard work?
I talked about the filmZombieearlier and Id like to come back to it.
We have 18 make-up artists today.
Weve had a couple of hundred zombies.
The goal is with featured ones to be somewhere around 2 hours.
Theres this stripper zombie, and shes basically wearing a thong, and thats it he recounts.
I wanted to recreate my concern for you, too.
Shes wearing a cap on her head that holds some effects rigs.
Shes got a tube thing wrapped around her neck.
It just means, if she stands like this, how many people can we put around her?
Theres a lot of stuff you wont see, hopefully.
The goal is to get everything practical that we can.
The idea with CG in some instances is to add more blood.
Gardners was the interview I left the set that thinking about.
Gardners job, I decided, is to be the extra mile.
